AustLit

'Egyptian Register' is one of seven poems from The Darkening Ecliptic that was cited during the Angry Penguins obscenity trial. The trial was conducted in Adelaide in September 1944. Under examination as a witness, Max Harris, editor of Angry Penguins, testified to his belief that 'Egyptian Register' was the most difficult to understand of the Malley poems. He thought that it's writing 'required a high degree of sophisticated intellect and remote images in the mind of the author, and a complex attitude to man and nature'. In reponse to assertions that the poem was indecent due to its reference to genitals, Harris stated that 'Egyptian Register' was 'a study of the magical qualities of nature'.

(Source for Harris' testimony: The Ern Malley Affair by Michael Heyward. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993)